Spencer's Mountain

Spencer's Mountain
Directed by	Delmer Daves Robert Totten (second unit)
Produced by	Delmer Daves
Screenplay by	Delmer Daves
Based on	the novel by Earl Hamner, Jr.
Starring	Henry Fonda Maureen O'Hara
Music by	Max Steiner
Cinematography	Charles Lawton, A.S.C. H. F. Koenekamp, A.S.C. (second unit)
Edited by	David Wages
Production company	A Delmer Daves Production
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	May 16, 1963 (1963-05-16)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$4.5 million (US/ Canada rentals) [1]

Spencer's Mountain is an American family drama film written, directed, and produced in 1963 by Delmer Daves from a novel by Earl Hamner, Jr.^[2] The film starred Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara^[3] and in early appearances, James MacArthur, Veronica Cartwright, and Victor French.

Production

The novel and film became the basis for the popular television series The Waltons, which followed in 1972. Differing from both the film and novel, The Waltons watered down many of the adult themes, including alcoholism and infidelity. Spencer's Mountain was the second of three films co-starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. Twenty years earlier they starred in the 1943 war drama Immortal Sergeant and, ten years after Spencer's Mountain, played the leads in the 1973 made-for-television film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel The Red Pony, directed and co-written by Spencer's Mountain second unit director Robert Totten.

Spencer's Mountain features the majestic scenery of Wyoming's Teton Range, as photographed by cinematographer Charles Lawton in Panavision and Technicolor. It was filmed in and around the town of Jackson and features the nearby Chapel of the Transfiguration. The novel and the series were set in the Virginia Appalachians, but Hamner said in 1963 that Daves wanted more imposing mountains to emphasize the characters' isolation and struggles with their environment.^[4]

Film critic Judith Crist writing in The New York Herald Tribune said of the film, "sheer prurience and perverted morality" adding "it makes the nudie shows at the Rialto look like Walt Disney productions."^[5]

Plot

The film centers on the trials and tribulations of the Spencers, a present day [early 1960s] family living in the Grand Teton Mountains of Wyoming. As the patriarch of a large and growing family, Clay Spencer (Henry Fonda) is fiercely independent, yet dedicated to his family. While he resists the influence of religion, he struggles to remain faithful to his wife Olivia (Maureen O'Hara), to enable his son (James MacArthur) to attend college, and to build a new home for his family.

Clay Spencer (Henry Fonda) awakes early one morning in the house he shares with his wife Olivia (Maureen O'Hara) and their huge brood of children. Among them is Clay Spencer Jr. (Clayboy, played by James MacArthur). Clay's parents also live there, and they all get up to welcome Clay's eight younger brothers and sisters to breakfast. Olivia asks for money for a high school graduation ring for Clayboy, but Clay says he doesn’t have the money. He used what they had to buy a table saw from his boss. He promises to get the money by working overtime at the quarry, and then the men set off to Clay's land on Spencer's Mountain. They work on the foundation for the house he plans to build for his family. In fact, he’s been promising to build the house for years.

The next day, Clay and Clayboy take their cow to their neighbor Percy Cook's (Dub Taylor) farm to get her bred with Methuselah, the local prize bull. Percy's daughter Minnie-Cora (Kathy Bennett) comes on to Clayboy, and he's unsure how to react. Later, talking with his dad, Clay tells him to remember: a lady ain't no cow, and he ain't no bull.

Clay then works overtime to get the money for Clayboy's ring, and his boss Col. Coleman (Hayden Rorke) gives him an added bonus: a day off with pay the day trout season opens. While Clay slips off to fish (instead of working on the house), the town prepares for the arrival of their new minister. Enjoying himself at the river, Clay meets a stranger, who joins him, and Clay tells him about the old granddad of all fish – and offers him a swig of his “insect repellent”. Later, the man comments that he finds the "repellent" to be "somewhat numbing". It is – of course – home brew, and the man hooks "old granddad". When the fish gets away, Clay launches into a profanity-laden tirade. Of course, given the era, the words are quite mild. The man chides him for his salty speech, and then – right before he plunges head first into the river – reveals that he's Preacher Goodman (Wally Cox), the town's new minister. He’s now disgraced in front of everyone, when he and Clay, drunk and drenched, stumble into town.

Clay learns that no one will attend Goodman's sermons, so he sets about fixing things. He essentially blackmails everyone into going to church, despite the fact that he doesn't go himself. As he's helped virtually everyone in town, over the years, they either go to church or pay him for the work he's done. They go, and Goodman leads them in the song "Shall We Gather at the River".

Clayboy graduates from High School, in a class of less than a dozen seniors, and he's the only boy. His teacher Miss Parker (Virginia Gregg) wants him to go to college, and she and the minister come to talk to Olivia and Clay. Unfortunately, the only scholarship available is to be a minister. Fortunately, Clay comes home drunk, having been celebrating his son’s accomplishment at being the first of the family to graduate. So, he signs the application without reading it. The teacher then speaks to Col. Coleman about turning an old building into a library and paying Clayboy to run it, as a means of him earning money toward college. While working on the library, Clayboy meets an old friend: the boss' daughter Claris (Mimsy Farmer), now home from college, and quite the looker. They start dating.

When Clayboy gets a rejection letter from the college, Clay drives to the city to ask the dean why. The dean explains that Clayboy had no Latin, which was required for his ministry scholarship. Clay is furious to learn the subject of the scholarship, but he works out a deal with the dean: if Clayboy can learn Latin before the start of college, he can enroll, but there will be no scholarship. Goodman agrees to teach Clayboy Latin, in exchange for Clay attending church. He does, to the amazement of everyone.

Clay and his dad (Grandpa Spencer, Donald Crisp) visit the old homestead on Spencer’s Mountain, and Grandpa speaks of his concerns about the big tree next to the family cemetery. Clay says he’ll chop it down. Meanwhile, Grandpa putters around the ruins of his old home. When he finds a childhood memento, he heads back toward Clay. The tree starts to come down, Clay tries to warn Grandpa off, but he freezes. Clay races to get him out of the way, but only ends up getting in the way himself. Both are crushed. Clayboy arrives, having been sent to bring the two their lunch. He races back to town and calls upon the townsfolk for help. Everyone heads up the mountain. Clay is hurt, but will recover. Grandpa has been mortally wounded, and dies soon after they get him home. After his funeral, Grandma reads his will. As he had given his sons his homestead on the mountain, he had nothing else left to give – except $37, and he leaves it to Clayboy to help him in college.

Clay and Clayboy go to college to show the dean Clayboy's certificate for Latin. He accepts it, and adds the name Clay Spencer Jr. to the roll of incoming freshman. Clay then visits a friend to get a loan to pay for the college. Unfortunately, Minnie-Cora, who Clayboy had earlier rejected, is now married to the friend, and she won't let him lend Clay the money. Olivia takes the kids home and tells Clay to give up – Clayboy is never going to get to college. Clay visits the new house, now well under construction, and hears Olivia's words echoing in his mind as he strolls around the place. Drenching the wood framing in accelerant, he burns the house down. Later, at home, he tells Olivia all the things he's going to do to fix up their existing home, and tells her the new house is gone. He's sold the land to Col. Coleman to pay for Clayboy's college.

Later, at the bus stop, the family says good-bye to Clayboy. Before getting on board, he and Clay embrace, and then he sits in the back next to a man. The fellow asks if he's going far, and Clayboy responds: "Right far," even as the tears trickle down his face.

Cast

Turner Classic Movies showing

Turner Classic Movies presented Spencer's Mountain on November 20, 2015 as part of its 24-hour "TCM Memorial Tribute to Maureen O'Hara" [who died on October 24], with commentary by host Robert Osborne. Shown earlier was 1939's Jamaica Inn and 1961's The Deadly Companions. Following Spencer's Mountain, the tribute continued with another 1963 feature, McLintock! (released six months later, in November), 1965's The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, 1971's Big Jake, 1957's The Wings of Eagles, 1939's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1952's The Quiet Man and At Sword's Point, 1947's Sinbad the Sailor and 1945's The Spanish Main.

Introduction for the majority of the films in the Maureen O'Hara tribute

"Hi, I'm Robert Osborne. Right now, we're setting aside our previously scheduled programming in order to pay tribute to one of the legendary stars from the so-called "Golden Era of Hollywood"… beautiful Maureen O'Hara, who died last month at her home in Boise, Idaho at the age of ninety-five. Over the course of her six decades as an actress, Maureen divided her time between living in her native Ireland, also a home in Hollywood and, later, a residence in the Virgin Islands where she ran a commuter seaplane service with her third husband, a former Air Force brigadier general. In all, Maureen O'Hara appeared in some sixty-five films and television projects with a wide range of co-stars that includes everybody from John Wayne and Henry Fonda, to James Stewart, John Candy and Macaulay Culkin. Her final acting role was in a made-for-TV movie in the year two thousand, after which she retired from acting, was rarely seen or written about for several years… not until the spring of two thousand and fourteen when she agreed to make an appearance at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Her appearance at the festival caused a really big to-do. Film fans were thrilled to see her again and everybody was reminded of what this spirited and talented Irish lady with the flaming red hair had contributed to so many classic films. Among those who were also paying attention were members of Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The result of that was that Maureen was presented, later in two thousand and fourteen, an Honorary Oscar for being, and I quote, "one of Hollywood's brightest stars whose inspiring performances flowed with passion, warmth and strength". Well, in her honor, we now bring you another example of her beauty… and her talent."

References

External links

• Spencer's Mountain at the Internet Movie Database
• Spencer's Mountain at AllMovie
• Spencer's Mountain at the TCM Movie Database
• Spencer's Mountain at the American Film Institute Catalog